Set Yourself Up for Success

     When it comes to changing your lifestyle, you MUST account for failure. I hate to say it, but unless you have a strong enough "why", it makes everything about changing that much harder. If you let your guard down or are unprepared for roadblocks, you will fall off the wagon and end up back at square one every time. 

    Every night I want you to pack your gym bag, whether you are going to the gym or not. Place it next to the front door, right next to your training shoes. Every time you leave the house, put it in your backseat or your trunk. Now you don't have the old "I don't have my workout clothes" excuse to skip the gym. Always have some pre-workout or a scoop of protein ready in a shaker bottle, now you don't have the old "I'm too tired/hungry" excuse to skip the gym. 

    Your gym bag should contain everything for a kick ass workout and some other sundries to be ready to hit the showers and get on with life. This means a change of clothes including undies and socks, your lifting belt, your squat shoes, and maybe wrist wraps if your bench is heavy enough. Also a shaker bottle with pre-workout or whey protein isolate, ready to just add water and go. Don't forget deodorant and maybe a bar of soap if your gym doesn't supply these things. 

    IF you are going to eat during the day, make sure you have plenty of beef jerky, bacon jerky, Slim Jims, and/or cheese sticks. This will help to prevent you from reaching for chips or cookies when you are hungry. Also, get the chips and cookies out of the house, willpower is a lie!!

    When you eat meals, eat until you are comfortably full, do not count calories or macros, just eat meat, bacon, eggs, and butter until you are satisfied. If you try to drop your the amount of food you consume too low too fast, you are setting yourself up for a binge later because you will be HANGRY. When you cook bacon or eggs, cook 6 of each at a time. This is called "meal prepping". Eat what you want at the time and put the rest in the fridge, it will be there when you come back.

    Being prepared ahead of time for when you are tired or stressed will set you up for success when it comes to choosing the correct quality of food. Personally, I always make 2 pounds of beef when I cook for myself, even though I usually get full off of 1 pound of beef. I will put the other pound in the fridge for my next meal because I know I won't want to cook after a 10 hour workday. 

    Know your weaknesses, and eliminate or lessen all of them to the extent that you can. Do NOT bring garbage snacks back into your house if you know you are a binge eater. You will say to yourself while buying them "I will just save them for the kids, or a 'cheat' day" that is way off in the future, but you will be munching on them before you even put them away. It's like an alcoholic buying a six pack of their favorite beer and keeping it in the fridge for "cheat" days, it just does not make sense. Alcoholics know they can not be around booze or even people who still binge on booze for a LONG time. Sugaraholics think that it is no big deal and that their willpower will be infinite for some reason. 

    Well, your willpower is not even close to infinite, in fact, if your willpower is CONSTANTLY challenged by YOU, it will run out FASTER and you will be forever stressed and thinking about the Doritos in the pantry until you can eat the whole bag. Then you will get the wave of shame and regret, wonder "what's even the point?", and the cycle continues. 

    You might even be victim to the "sunk cost fallacy". This means you don't want to throw away the garbage because you spent your hard earned money on it, or your kids/grandkids love it! You think just because you already spent the money, you might as well eat it ALL. Well, load that garbage up in a box and donate it to a local food bank, throw it in the sewer, burn it for heat, I don't care. Do it while your willpower and discipline are at their zenith. Take the hit in your pocketbook and load up on beef, pork, chicken, butter, bacon, and bone broth. Your grocery bill will be about the same as it was when you were buying garbage. 

    The point is, surround yourself with daily "wins". Cook a huge breakfast of bacon and eggs and eat as much as you would like, have a snack of cottage cheese, drink some whey isolate protein after your workouts, JUST put your gym clothes on! All of these tiny habits will add up to HUGE change if you let them. The same way your bad habits got you into this mess, your good habits will get you out. So find any cracks in your armor that have held you back or could potentially hold you back, and fill in those cracks. If you want to read more, read a book first thing in the morning instead of browsing Facebook. If you want to learn a language, download Duolingo and make it a daily practice. If you want to start going to the gym, always have your gym bag packed and handy. And if you want to take control of your life, expect failures, PLAN FOR THEM, and then set yourself up for success. 

    

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Recovery, Recovery, RECOVERY

      Let me paint a scenario for you: You join the gym and start hitting it HARD 7 days a week. Sure 2 or 3 of those days are your "cardio" days, and sometimes you take a Zumba class. But you are going hard in the gym and you feel great. Now jump to one month later: You are dreading going to the gym because it is squat day and you are still beat to shit from your bench day (the day before). Your ankles and hips hurt, you are getting snippy with your significant other, and you feel almost depressed. You haven't lost an ounce of bodyfat or gained an oz of muscle and you are sitting on the couch, waiting for your pre workout to kick in for some chemical motivation.      You have officially done what millions of trainees have done before you: went too hard too fast and skipped "recovery". The process of gaining strength, and therefore muscle mass, is referred to as the "stress, RECOVERY, adaptation" cycle. The stress is the hour or so you spend in the gym...
Read more

Natural Hygiene

      Hygiene is, of course, very important. But in today's modern world full of pollution (did you know that going outside and breathing in L.A. is virtually the same as smoking cigarettes?) we can not afford to put more chemical concoctions on our skin, in our hair, and in our mouths. These are the environmental pollutants that ad companies have decided we need to douse ourselves in everyday in order to exist in public without stinking or (God forbid) looking our age.      Today we are surrounded by "endocrine disruptors". These are chemicals that will alter your hormones, and not for the better. If you drink from a plastic bottle that hasn't been handled PERFECTLY, you have been exposed to toxic chemicals. If you drink unfiltered tap water, you have been exposed to toxic chemicals. If you use fluoridated toothpaste and chemical anti-perspirant (containing aluminum) you have been exposed to toxic chemicals. These "normal" pollutants we put ...
Read more

Story Time : Your Coach in His Twenties

    The purpose of this post is to get some stuff off my chest. I would like to let people know that I am NOT special, I am simply a guy with an above average IQ that likes to lift heavy stuff. What I have accomplished is attainable for anyone and everyone.      In my twenties, I was (in my words) a dipshit. I have always had a substance problem and an addictive personality. Whether it was booze, nicotine, or  caffeine, I wanted it in large amounts. Every week was the same pattern: Work my buns off slanging pizzas for 40 hours, collects tips, and hit the bars on the weekends to blow those tips. At this time I was a believer, but one of those "believers in name only". I was not glorifying God with my reckless behavior. I was simply looking to get messed up as quickly as possible as soon as the weekends rolled around.           My friends and I would go down to our local dive, drink way to much, sing karaoke, smoke too many cigar...
Read more